Mob attacks Sri Lanka detention camp, 24 killed

October 25, 2000
Web posted at: 9:00 PM HKT (1300 GMT)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) -- A mob rampaged through a detention camp housing Tamil rebels and child soldiers in central Sri Lanka Wednesday, killing at least 24 inmates and wounding dozens.

"We have counted 24 bodies from the camp," said Capt. Tilak Senanayake of the army headquarters in Colombo.

The camp is used as a detention center to reform guerrillas and child soldiers.

Local residents said the Bindunuwewa camp near the central town of Bandarawela, some 140 miles east of Colombo, was completely devastated.

They said hundreds of machete and knife wielding men, most from nearby villages, torched buildings in the compound after killing the inmates early Wednesday.

Police at the scene said several smoldering corpses littered the compound hours after the attack.

Hospital officials said 16 people were still being treated, most for serious head injuries.

"The army was called in to restore order at the Bindunuwewa camp after it was stormed by villagers in the locality. But by the time a platoon arrived Wednesday morning the camp was completely gutted," said military spokesman, Brig. Sanath Karunaratne.

Facing a major propaganda disaster, state media said President Chandrika Kumaratunga had condemned the attack and ordered an investigation.

"The President has condemned the incident at Bindunuwewa and ordered two teams of high ranking officials to investigate. Security has been tightened at other detention centers," State Radio reported.

The camp's deputy commissioner, M.A. Vipulaguna, said the camp housed more than 40 inmates including Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who had surrendered or been captured.

Other officials said there could have been as many as 80.

Officials did not say whether there were any child soldiers among the casualties, but said several of the inmates at the time of the attack were under the age of 18.

The LTTE is known to use children as young as 10 in the battle for a separate Tamil state in the country's north and east.

Karunaratne said the camp was not run by the defense ministry and that its security was the responsibility of the local police.

He said troops had first been sent to the camp Tuesday night at the request of police who wanted help to "quell unrest."

Police said the trouble began when the camp's inmates started a protest late Tuesday to demand their freedom and took a camp official hostage.

Residents said the mob stormed the camp Wednesday as rumors spread that the inmates were preparing an attack of their own.

An independent radio station quoted one of the attackers as saying the inmates had connected power lines to the barbed wire fence around the camp and hurled rocks to protect themselves.

Clashes frequently erupt in Sri Lanka's notoriously overcrowded prisons and detention centers.

More than 50 Tamil prisoners were massacred by majority Sinhala inmates at Colombo's main Welikada jail in 1983 during ethnic riots that plunged the country into full scale war.

More than 61,000 people have been killed in the conflict since then.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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